Four Ways to Achieve Perfect Timing and Find the Perfect Candidate

In a market where it seems that the right talent is hard to come by, it is incumbent on recruiters to have almost a preternatural awareness of who is available and when. Unfortunately, 73% of the most qualified candidates are passive job seekers. Even when they are active, top candidates are hired within 10 days, or get hired before you can even schedule the first interview.

Just like “location, location, location,” is the mantra for real estate agents, recruiters must focus on “timing, timing, timing.” Yet without actually reading minds and predicting the future, how can recruiters gain visibility into candidate mindsets and intentions?

Here are four strategies recruiting firms can implement that will lead to better timing and finding the best available candidate:

More effectively reach candidates

The number of potential candidates to engage is seemingly endless. However, it may not be worth engaging everyone in the talent pool for every open position. Engaging with only the most qualified candidates and adding a personal touch, while also racing the clock to fill the position is tricky. With marketing automation, you can utilize information like demographics or candidate engagement to send emails that reach only the most qualified candidates at the exact time they’re looking.

Make sure they can find you, too

Job seekers are using every channel available to search for new positions – including Google. Optimize your website content so your pages show up in their searches. Provide opportunities for them to “opt-in” to your blog or newsletter so they can be notified of new jobs or get advice specific to your industry. Once you’ve made your website accessible, use marketing automation to understand who is interested enough to make it to your site and interact with it. Track who came to your site, what pages they visited, and how long they stayed. Then, leverage this type of information when building candidate profiles.

Establish lifelong relationships

Keep candidates warm by nurturing the relationship over time. Never miss an opportunity to have a meaningful interaction. This could mean wishing them good luck on a new role, or simply saying happy birthday. Firms that consistently engage with candidates are more likely to report their existing database as their top source of placements.

More engagement with candidates and employers also leads to a greater knowledge about who they are and what they’re looking for. The more you know about candidates or the types of employers they are interested in working for, the more you can personalize your relationship with them. Even after someone is placed, you can keep in touch by providing periodic content that is relevant to their role. If at some point they are looking for a new job, you’ll be among the first to know.

Don’t stop looking for the right person

While nothing can replace the human touch, recruiters now need to balance physical and digital outreach when building and sustaining relationships. In general, a marketing automation platform can bring intelligence (and in many cases efficiency) to a variety of efforts, such as lead nurturing, campaign planning and execution, campaign effectiveness measurement, website visitor identification and more.

How well did a campaign do? Did an email receive a lot of opens and clicks? Who was it that opened and clicked on an email? A marketing automation platform can answer these questions.

With marketing automation, recruiters can increase visibility for better timing. Getting the right message in front of the right person at the right time is a must, and the knowledge about candidates that a marketing automation platform can capture can help you do just that.